What makes rows

[theboman]

I'm nearly sure my mom will make rolls this Easter Sunday, oh it's rows...

I'm still thinking the cheapest way with a tractor is a culitvator, they'll run under $200, and I think Homier sells them for like $125.

I used a tater plow too with my B7500. Just lowering it so that the hoe just makes a neat little V as a furrow. If you do it this way you may want to use a string to mark where you want the rows to help ya stay straight.... I used to get to narrow when using the tater plow.

 

[RalphVa]

One thing in favor of disc hillers is that the tractor wheels don't go over the soil where you want to plant. With a tater plow, the wheels will be running right over the rows you're throwing soil onto. Still, the disc hillers end up throwing soil that's been compacted by the wheels onto the rows. Could go through the between-rows skids made by the tater plow later and pull some chisel plows to break up the soil, IF you've exactly run the plow where the wheels would go. Another thing in favor of the disc hillers is you end up with precise between-rows that you drive the tractor down to later chisel plow them or drive bucket and cart down to distribute mulch.

I ended up using a little Ryobi cutlivator/rototiller to break up clods and to clear stray clods from between the rows made by the disc hillers. A few clods were fine to put the taters into. They'll break up by mid April when I plant my corn.

Ralph

 

[kensfarm]

Before I had my bed shaper.. I used the FEL one year to make raised beds.. could probably try a rear blade set at a good angle to make raised beds too. Sometimes you just have to use what you have. I always have the soil worked up good before making the raised beds.

 

[KiotiJohn]

The Leinbach product (disk hiller) that bigtractor mentioned is much like what Ralph is using. I've seen them out at the dealership. They seem like a good low cost option. John

 

[RalphVa]

The queer thing about the commercial disc hillers is they say a minimum of about 30-35 hp is needed. I had no trouble pulling the 2 16" disc hillers set at 45 degree opposed angles with my JD 4010.

You can buy one of the "cultivators" with about a half dozen chisle plows bolted to a 2x2 or so bar. Just buy a couple disc hillers and have a machine shop or welding shop fashion some clamps for them. The Ohio web site has clamps. I got no reply from them when I asked what they looked like. The pictures didn't show up on their web site. This is the site for the disc hillers http://www.buctraco.com/disks.htm where they have the clamps, too. The disc hillers at Agri Supply are about half the price of theirs, but no clamps. My friend made mine for me out of scrap metal.

Ralph

 

[yoyo]

Ralph, I lucked out and a friend gave me what was left of his Cole 4 row planters. I got a 14ft 2 1/4" diamond toolbar, solid steel. I got the clamps and 4 disk hillers, clamps and 2 cultivator shanks, clamps and 2 depth gauge wheels , and one Cole planter unit. I cut the toolbar into 2 5ft bars and a 4 foot bar. I used the clamps to add the 4 foot bar behind the 5 ft bar and attached the planter and 2 spring cultivators to the rear 4 ft bar . I added 2 disk hillers and the wheels to the front 5 ft bar. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like a winner. I haven't seen any clamps for the diamond toolbars at agri-supply. I did see some in a Ferguson book my local dealer had which had all sorts of clamps and toolbars. He quoted about $270 for a 80" 3pt diamond toolbar. I think some af the clamps were around $75 . The machine shop quoted $400-$500 to make a toolbar from scratch. If you can find old equipment, it's worth the effort. I have a lead on another 4 row planter I'm going after /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RalphVa]

I ordered 2 12" discs from Agri Supply. I figure I can put these on to clear out between the rows and put 3 to 4 of the chisel plows back on to do the rows, all at the same time. This way, I'll just keep the same rows for 3 or 4 years. When I want to level the rows again, I can just mount the 16 inches in the middle in tanden at a small angle and level them, or use my Gravely rotary plow if I'm up to that kind of abuse.

Agri Supply shows a blow-up parts list to the disc hillers in their catalog. You can order any parts you want. The 12, 14 and 16" bolt to the same 4 bolt axles (4 bolts on disc side, single through into the shank).

Ralph

 

[fortyseven2n]

First , you should plow and disc to loosen the soil well . Be sure and pull a drag behind the disc to smooth it out flat.

Speaking of plowing, you should plow in the winter so the freezing and thawing cycles will help break up the clods.

What my Dad always does is to use a cutivator and only use 2 shanks. The tines are spaced in line with the tractor wheels and we took off the standard cultivator points and bolted on what he calls a laying off plow point. They are kind of like sweeps and cut a nice furrow to plant in.

What you do is make your first pass where you want the rows to start , then line up one wheel in one of the rows and make the next pass and so forth. Yes , you are cutting each row twice but you maintain your spacing and it does not hurt anything. It may seem like the rows are kind of far apart but they work out just right for running a cultivator through . They won't look so far apart once the plants come up.

I have a single row corn planter that I also use. After I plant the first row , I keep the tractor wheel right next to the row I just planted to space the rows. This puts them closer which helps shade out any weeds .

Just my .02 worth.

Fortyseven2n

 

[yoyo]

Thanks for the advice. I couldn't figure out how far the rows will be with my Kioti CK25. My first thought was to make them about 6 foot then use my tiller and tractor to keep the middles clean. Thats alot of wasted growing space. I have a old cultivator and along with my newly acquired toolbars, I should have enough to do just about anything . I just need experience.The main thing right now is getting the moving parts working good , as the bearings in the disc and gauge wheels are bad. I bought 1/2lb of silver queen corn and I hope thats more than enough for a 48'x150' block. I am trying to acquire a set of the lustran seed plates so that I can plant what ever I want. I was told that I could plant the sunflower seeds that come in the 40lb birdseed bags ($8). Thats alot cheaper than the regular seeds.

 

[kensfarm]

My current setup is to plant 2 narrow rows that fit inside the tires width.. then I can cultivate w/ properly spaced tines.. until the plants are about a foot tall..(I usually get to cultivate twice before it reaches the foot height) after that the canopy of the plants will help shield out the weeds.